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Sad day for Atari fans

ATARI US files for Chapter-11. Atari Consumer Electronics Division, the Jaguar & ST people pretty much died off in 1996, while the arcade people prospered on.. Or so it would seem.

The company has a valuation of just 25.4 MM Euros… But is it enough for 2600 legacy game lore? I don’t think missle command nostalga is really worth that much. The last big hit of theirs, was publishing rollercoaster tycoon..

Even looking through the highstreet today, anything Atari was in the bargin bin, the problem being that 30 year old games just don’t hold anyone’s interest for more than a few minutes today.. Their catalog is just.. old.

Oh well, it is chapter 11, which means ATARI gets time to pay creditors, take on new debt, and do a reorganization. They may pull through this, although the world is a much different place than 1972, only time will tell.

About neozeed

What is there to tell? I've loved UNIX like things since I was first exposed to QNX in highschool (we had the Unisys ICONS!), and spent the better time of my teenage years trying to get my own UNIX... I should have bought Coherent in retrospect.. Anyways latched onto Linux in 1992, and then got some old BSD admin books and have been hooked on the VAX BSD & other big/ancient things since...!

2 thoughts on “Sad day for Atari fans”

Beyond the brand value to older gamers I can’t really see Chapter 11 doing anything positive for Atari besides extending their eventual demise. The time for cashing in on their product catalog and porting it to low-rez mobile devices to generate renewed interest passed over a decade ago. Even as a publisher Atari has nothing compelling to offer to developers (who would ink a deal with a company on death’s door?).

Yes, that pretty much sums it up… I think we are a few years away from SEGA falling down the same hole. I think they can only ride Sonic’s tail for so long (I know that was lame).. But with their latest shining force censorship thing, they have lost touch with the fanbase.